This short course focuses on solving and analyzing economic models with occasionally binding constraints. Such constraints are a common feature in many environments.
A prominent example that recently has received a lot of attention is the zero lower bound on central banks’ policy rates. In response to the financial crisis and the massive decline in economic activity, central banks sharply reduced interest rates to levels close to zero.
Although some central banks’ policy rates have now entered negative territory, there clearly are constraints that limit the values policy rates can take on.

This course discusses numerical techniques that can be used to solve such models.